A quaint 3BHK apartment, part of a 15 year old building located amidst the lush green belt area of Bengaluru just a few hundred metres away from Lalbhag. This home was renovated for a couple with a 5 year old boy who were looking to make their home in the same area they spent their childhood growing up. The apartment was left unused for a few months and needed a total makeover especially the bathrooms and the woodwork needed to be ripped down. The flooring used was a light beige marble which remained as our base canvas to start putting together our design ideas. Considering the short ceiling height as well, we decided not to opt for any false ceiling and worked with existing light points.
The clients were clear about wanting a home that suited their taste for a minimalistic modern aesthetic and a material palette of an earthy appeal. All of this, with a huge amount of priority given to function. Since it would predominantly be a home for just the three of them, and occasional visits by friends and family the spaces were designed around their lifestyle.
The material palette predominantly revolved around using a combination of earthy colors and hints of green, hence the name Brick and Jade too. We used a wooden texture similar to that of the grains on the existing doors and framework. Wicker was a material that we used in minimal amounts too, and this detail is seen on the most of our fixed furniture being wardrobes and on the movable furniture as well. Small metal accents of black and gold were used in the hardware and the light fittings.
Keeping some fundamental materials that came with the building, we developed moodboards and materials palettes around these elements. The exposed brick masonry on the exterior of the apartment was an inspiration to me as a designer and that had to be brought into the home in some minimalistic manner. On entering the living room, you are welcomed by an exposed arched brick wall which not only adds character to the space but also is the focal point around planning the public spaces in this home. While designing this home, our client Sushma was keen on using the color green, and that worked great for us too, in a way of bringing in hints of green just like the outdoor which was filled with lush greenery. The private spaces. i.e the bedrooms and the bathrooms were a lot more subtle and the colors and materials used there were more soothing to the eyes.
Owing to the fact that the building was over 15 years, we weren’t allowed to break down any walls. However, this was a challenge as we were trying to open up the plan as much as possible in order to ensure light and ventilation would flow in naturally. Since we couldn’t open up the kitchen, we decided to remove the kitchen door and the window between the kitchen and utility hence creating an airy kitchen where more than one person could comfortably work. We also demolished all bathroom fittings and tiles and gave them a fresh new look.
The apartment opens into a fairly small foyer, sufficient enough to house minimal storage and a small seat to use while you wear your footwear. This space further leads to the open living and dining along two adjacent sides. The living further opening into a beautiful balcony that overlooks the lush landscape and the pool of the apartment. The living room is adorned with a combination of furniture pieces sourced from ‘magari’ that are clients instantly fell in love with at the store. The Fabric selection was however carefully curated to match our color palette of the home. A small pooja room that are clients were sure to not sure as a conventional set up was an area for us to experiment on. Since the whole family enjoys reading and owned a huge collection of books, my instant thought was to create a library nook that could also be an area for our little client to enjoy playing a game or two all by himself. We retained the original wooden frame of the pooja door and stained it to a green. The door was however refurbished into a small design element in the balcony to house plants. Alternatively, we designed a small, yet functional pooja along the dining wall to serve the purpose of prayers.
The kitchen is a simple combination of an L-counter and a straight counter, splitting function into the heavy-duty area and the simple coffee station along with all other appliances packed into the same stretch. Sushma our client, had a picture of a green tile that she had set her eyes on even before we started designing this space and after a hunt for this tile across bangalore, we found it at ‘Ceramique’. Being a bold print, we decided to sober down the opposite counter with a simpler dado tile again from ceramique.
The master bedroom is a simple room that we replanned spatially to orient the bed and wardrobe in such a way to bring in more light and reflection. Wicker being an integral part of our material palette which was used on the wardrobe shutters and the bed headboaord in a very minimalistic way. The master bathroom is our favorite bathroom renovation, hands down. We decided to go with a monochromatic look of hexagonal tiles on the floor and keep the walls simple.
The second bedroom dedicated to our little client, Samit had nonchalantly picked blue as his favorite color in one of our early conversations. However, we didn’t want to design this room as a stereotypical boy’s blue bedroom that he would eventually grow out of and hence tried to carry the material palette into this space cohesively. The monochromatic printed tiles and a tinge of blue in the bathroom ties the two spaces together. Fun, bold prints on the headboard and the curtain, and a relatively big wardrobe for all his toys and clothes sums up this room for us. The last bedroom was undoubtedly going to be the home office, and we decided to keep it aesthetically simple and functional. The clients wanted a relatively large work desk so that two people could also work at the same time, or probably in the future where their child and a parent could use it together for an activity. We also used an entire wall in the room to create a functional book storage and units to store all the office supplies and appliance.
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